Beastie Boys is a trio consisting of Michael “Mike D” Diamond, Adam “ADROCK” Horovitz, and the late Adam “MCA” Yauch (1964–2012), formed in 1981 as part of New York’s hardcore punk underground. The group’s first full-length album, Licensed to Ill, was the first rap album to reach #1. With seven multi-platinum albums from 1986 to 2011, including Licensed to Ill, Paul’s Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication, Hello Nasty, To the 5 Boroughs, and Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, Beastie Boys are one of the longest-lived hip hop acts worldwide. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, received the MTV Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award in 1998, and have won three Grammy Awards.
“A fascinating, generous book with portraits and detail that float
by in bursts of color . . . As with [the band’s] records, the
book’s structure is a lyrical three-man weave. . . . Diamond’s
voice is lapidary, droll. Horovitz comes on like a borscht belt
comedian, but beneath that he is urgent, incredulous, kind of
vulnerable. . . . Friendship is the book’s subject as much as
music, fame and New York.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Wild, moving . . . resembles a Beastie Boys LP in its wild variety
of styles.”—Rolling Stone
“As nutty, irreverent, and fun as you think it would be.”—Vogue
“As freewheeling and funny as their albums . . . a beautifully
messy (and large) talisman containing within it many of the great
joys and surprises that come with listening to the Beastie
Boys”—The AV Club
“Horovitz and Diamond share sincere moments of reflection about
their music, their friendship and the guy who taught them to fix
radiators, to care about human rights, to own up to mistakes and to
grow up.”—NPR, Morning Edition
“Teeming with tour anecdotes, personal letters, playlists, comics
and photographs—[Beastie Boys Book] unspools the crew’s thirty-year
run in the music industry and is appropriately massive.”—Los
Angeles Times
“Diamond and Horovitz alternate as narrators, and their prose is as
infectious as their music. Other contributors chime in with their
own idiosyncratic takes. Roy Choi offers a mini cookbook of
Beastie-themed dishes. Amy Poehler delves into the videography of
the group. Luc Sante takes the reader on a musical tour of New York
City streets in the early 1980s. The result is a book Beastie Boys
fans will clamor for and a must-read for music
enthusiasts.”—Booklist (starred review)
“This entertaining look at Beastie Boys history is as innovative
and raucous as the band’s music.”—Publishers Weekly (starred
review)
“Beastie Boys fans will devour this book, as will anyone interested
in the early days of hip-hop, the art/music/street life of New York
City in the 1980s, and the alternative-nation zeitgeist of the
’90s.”—Kirkus Reviews
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